Conquest of Spaces

“Last time I checked, your job was tied to the oceans, not the wounds of others.” Figures the whale would exploit this opportunity to the fullest, though at least he seemed to be more receptive than Groudon, as far as interactions and apologies were concerned.

“Though you jumping off your tower means nothing.  You have the freedom to fly, whereas I may only....”  He trailed off, ignoring the fact that he had recently been pushed off that damn tower.

“…rub it in, why don’t you?” He was tempted to tell the other off, adding that it was only a joke before he decided to wisely hold his tongue. He knew he messed up, and snapping as a result of his now wounded pride would only make things worse for the dragon in the long run.

Kyogre smiled faintly, before taking a step forward with the quiet click of his heel.

“Destruction would bring a change. Probably not an immediately positive one, but sometimes you need to burn a forest down to help it grow stronger.” It was putting it simply. Sometimes, he wished to make everything stop, and send the core spinning in another direction just to piss off Arceus. Yet the implied levels of death and destruction weren’t anything he wished for. Someone had already pinned the blame on him for the end of an era, and while he didn’t remember doing anything like that, he was… grateful, for if he had been the one to perpetrate the act and remember it, he wouldn’t be able to live with that guilt.

Clawed hands rested on Kyogre’s shoulders, sliding down to follow the strands of hair that fell like waterfalls down his back. It was soft and thin under rough fingers.

“Maybe it would be better if we went back to our slumbers.  Perhaps wake when the world needs us again.”

When he felt those claws against his back, his body instantly seized up as memories of old battles flashed through his mind.  But the touch was gentle.  Calm.  Kyogre let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding, simply allowing himself the rare touch of another.

“Maybe I have. Maybe I am tired. Maybe I just want to piss off the asshole that gave me this job in the first place. Give him another reason to be a bag of steaming shit.”

He still kept himself on the balls of his feet, his balance warped to fit that position better. He hadn’t ever dared walk the earth with his heels touching the ground – knowing that high magnitude earthquakes would follow.

“So you think the destruction would do your wish justice?  You know better, Groudon.  I would very much like to remain here a little while longer before you decide to let the world stop.”  Kyogre fought desperately to hold his tongue, for while it was only in his nature to goad Groudon into anger.....he also understood.

“............I feel it too.”  His voice was much quieter now, unlike the booming bravado he always put on.  Quiet and calm, like the depths of the ocean.

I’ve kinda held off on posting my marker work due to having to figure out my scanner, but hey!  

Casually strolling over to the ledge where Kyogre hung for deer life, Ray looked down at him, a sneer on his lips. “What was that, you asked? You’ll have to speak up,” he said, taking more joy in his suffering than he probably should. Finally, the whale was at his mercy and calling out to him for help. This is how it should be.

Just as Kyogre’s grip was about to fail, Rayquaza reached out and tool hold of the others arm, digging in his heels as he attempted to pull him up. “…you’re no lightweight, you know that?” he asked, slowly pulling Kyogre up over the ledge of the pillar. “Kind of makes me wish I let your heavy mass fall off the tower. “ But no, Rayquaza decided to show mercy.

In an ungraceful stumble when he hit solid ground, he fell to his knees, allowing his breath to quicken and show fear.  For while the great leviathan of the seas thought himself to be above all, there were moments where his immortality caused him grief.  He knew if Rayquaza hadn’t caught him, he would have hit the ground with such a tremendous force.  He would have been left crippled and unmovable for days.

Kyogre knew he should thank the dragon.  Thank him for saving him from great pain.  His head was bowed, and as he grit his teeth, he managed to spit out an ounce of thanks.

“......Groudon would have been much heavier.”

“E-er yeah-..” he stammered a bit. He looked off where his arm seemed to point to. “To be honest sir, for my boss it would be just an inconvenience I think. Now for me it’d be really bad because I kinda need to make money and uh, eat and stuff.” He was trying to will himself to stop nervously rambling because pretty soon he felt he might babble off something even worse than that.

The air about the two figures was slowly starting to thicken, heavy with moisture.  Kyogre took in a deep breath of this, exhaling lightly before speaking once more.

                           What was so wrong with smelling like fish? He’d been told before that most people just plain didn’t like the smell of it, but that’d always struck him as being terribly odd - didn’t people eat fish? Why would creatures that ate fish and enjoyed eating fish not be attracted to the smell of fish? It just made no sense (not that there was all that much on the planet that did make sense, to his defence).

                           "… Humans do not wreck everything they touch. I do not believe so, anyway.”

                           His words were slow, or if they weren’t they were at least slow when compared to his usual quick-tongued quipping whenever he droned on about space this or physics that or whenever he had the chance to prattle on about some obscure scientific tidbit he’d picked up.

Still, he tilted his nose up to the man when he finished speaking.  Passion was a good thing, but not when it had to deal with humans.  Kyogre did well to hold his tongue, but some of the poison still swept past his lips.

“A single human, alone, perhaps not.  But when you have entire populations, over so many millennia, the world weeps.  The earth can sustain itself, but not for long.  Can you not feel it in your bones?  How many forests have been cut down, how many oceans polluted by oil and trash.  The air, polluted by man-made creations.  How many species of Pokemon have died off because of this, how many still suffer?”

Normally Kyogre would speak only of his beloved oceans, but there was a point where he could not ignore that the entire land suffered. 

His brows furrowed a bit when he said how lost he was. “E-erm well, I thought I only took a wrong turn.. though I guess that means I could have been going in the opposite direction this whole time- Or.. did I get turned around again?” he babbled a little nervously.

Though his hands were covered in pristine white gloves, they hinted quite easily that his nails were just as sharp as his teeth.  

“Oh?  It would be quite easy to get lost in these woods, indeed.  It would be a pity if you weren’t able to get to your destination, no?”  The hand retracted, before being used to give a sweeping motion to point to the west.

“Hardly,” he said, keeping his answer short and sweet. “And do not act like you would not do the same if the situation was reversed. You claim you are above the behaviors and actions I’m exhibiting, but I know damn well you’d lower yourself to the same were our positions reversed. One look at your battles with Groudon is enough to confirm this.”

He increased the pressure of his finger on Kyogre’s chest, waiting for when it would be enough to cause the other to bend backwards over the ledge. “Cruelty? Perhaps. However, I see it as teaching one a lesson as to how properly respect, revere and treat those who reside in a domain that is not one’s own.

Plus, you should know by now how a dragon’s wrath works, especially when one is insulted as you have so done. The wrath of your primal form will pale in comparison, that I can assure you.”

Kyogre opened his mouth to speak, to cast judgement upon the dragon, when that increase in pressure was all it took.  The leviathan’s heel slipped on the very edge of the pillar, bits of stone crumbling under his feet.  Golden eyes went wide in utter terror, as he found himself dropping.

As the world fell underneath his feet, his hand shot out and just barely managed to grasp the very edge of the pillar.  His gloved hand trembled as it fought to keep a hold of the rock and stone, and even harder, Kyogre fought not to look down.  If not for the weight of his clothing and hair, he may have been able to pull himself up.  But as he dangled there, fingers slowly slipping, he went for his last ditch effort.

“Rayquaza, please!  This is madness!  I shall jest no longer at your expense, just...help me up!"

Haughty and vain as he was, Kyogre knew when the game was up.  He was immortal, but he could still feel pain.  And the pain that was soon to come frightened him more than anything.  He could only hope that Rayquaza would come to his senses.